Crossposted from the PeoplesView
So much has been said about President Obama's handling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where many immature "progressives" had been saying all sort of things like how President Obama has raised the white flag for wall street, how wall street owns him, how he folded like a cheap suit, how he is the only sane Republican running in 2012, how this President is useless calling him a Folder-In-Chief, how he is a sellout to banks, how he has plotted a scam with Geithner to silence Warren, etc., all because Obama came to a decision to nominated someone other than Elizabeth Warren.
The queen of hysteria even said this a few days ago (sorry, not going to link to FDL):
Everybody knew the Republicans wouldn’t vote for Warren from the outset. Obama could have appointed her as the director when the agency was created, so the “60 vote” excuse was a charade. Remember the reasons given by the White House at the time to explain why he didn’t?
The concern stressed by officials in the White House is that Warren would not be allowed to be the public face of the agency or to testify before Congress if under the virtual cone of silence of a Presidential nominee. This allows the agency to begin without delay. But down the road, she could still serve in the interim capacity while nominated for the position, and that’s frankly where this can go. [quote from another FDL diary]
Of course the only thing “down the road” was the can that the President likes to kick in his favorite metaphor. It allowed him to give her the boot when things had cooled down a bit, and the issue was out of the headlines. From a political perspective, now is a smart time to do it, because the debt ceiling battle will consume everything in its wake.
[Bold emphases mine]
[How fucking cynical can one get?]
This is a link to what Elizabeth Warren said starting @1:37min mark:
Portion transcribed by me:
...There are those who don't want the President of the United States to have a political win and he is...let's face it, he worked hard on this agency. When the President and I met last summer, he said, there are two jobs on the table right now. One is I can nominate you but keep in mind you won't be able to talk about the agency or there is a job getting started putting together the thing together right now and which of the two are you most interested and I said RIGHT NOW. I want the one to start working on it right this minute. Right now, I am doing the job I want to be doing. It's a job I need to be doing. I am doing a start-up job. It is a 14 hours day job.
It is indeed a hard 14 hours day job effecting change on behave of consumers, not a 14 hours of constant undermining of President Obama as done by the likes of Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald who think everything is a failure before the president even makes any decision on any matter.
Well, Elizabeth Warren was on Rachel Maddow show last night and she could not have put the hammer on the mouth of Jane Hamsher and other feckless Professional Leftists who don't have anything better to do except foam at the mouth considering time and time again how they have been proven wrong about the assumption they take on President Obama's decision making process because of the sensationalized outrage of the usual suspects like Glenn Greenwald, Paul Krugman, Adam Green or Cenk Uygur drumming up the drama that goes viral.
Watch the video and see if there was any sense of resentfulness in the voice of Elizabeth Warren about how the President gave her the boot while she was expressing her feelings about the Agency and President Obama:
Transcript:
About vision for the Agency
Maddow>>: This is a landmark week for you, agency you championed comes into existence. how do you feel about this first week and the chances for this agency's survival?
Warren>>: you know, i actually feel great, and i'll tell you why i feel great. i feel great because the agency is strong, because we have attracted tremendous people to come here and work, because there are people around the country who follow what we do and who are behind it, because we're really going to make this work. and look, if it takes a fight, we've fought before, we'll keep fighting, because at the end of the day, we are fighting for america. we are fighting for middle class families who just want a fighting chance when they go into the marketplace, they want to be treated honestly and fairly, they don't want to be cheated. this agency is there to be a cop on the beat and make sure there's fairness in the system.
About the Agency and the Passion of Warren
Maddow:>> given republican criticism of the agency and this really palpable fear in washington over you as a potential nominee and what this agency is going to do. let me ask you for specifics. one thing you described today, you set up an office of service member affairs working on problems they face. what is that need there that you are trying to meet? what is the agency doing to meet that need?
Warren:>> this has been one of the very first parts we filled in in the agency as we're trying to build all the pieces out. holly petraeus came into me the second week i was on the job and started talking about what's happening to military families. look, i knew some of it, but boy, i didn't know it firsthand the way holly petraeus knew it, about how new service members are targeted by those who figured out they can peel their money away, what's happening to service members when they are overseas and they are not getting the full protection of the law they are entitled to, about the number one reason in america for losing your security clearance is a problem with a creditor. holly said there's a lot you can do with this agency and i want to see you do it. i had a couple of conversations with her and i said shoot, i think we just saw the person who should head up that office and that's what she's been doing. she's gone on her own to several, really starting the conversation with military families about what's happening to them and what we can do to be helpful. if you go to our blog, let me do a commercial, www.consumerfinance.gov. there are a lot of pieces on it right now, but one is there for military families and they have an ongoing conversation with holly and the staff she's building. we just met last week with the judge advocates general of the different military branchs and are working out with the department of defense how we can work in concert to be stronger to be there for military families. there are major financial institutions that have admitted that they didn't follow the law that they focussed illegally against military members and their families when those members were deployed in iraq and afghanistan and other places outside the united states. we've jumped in on that and asked for what procedures they are using to make sure they are going to be in compliance with the law, and starting this thursday, we get to start putting our cops on the beat. we're here for military families, but, you know, that's just a microcosm of what's happening in all of america. that's what this agency is for.
About Warren's feeling of President Obama and the Republicans
Maddow:>> hearing you talk about that with such passion, and i know this is what you've been doing for all this time, i have to ask you if you wish you had been appointed by the president to be running the agency, and if now you are leaving washington, heading home to washington, if you feel you've developed a washington allergy or if you'd like to get back in there?
Warren:>> let me start with the first part, we would not have a consumer agency if not for president obama. two years ago, right about now, he looked out and said the consumer agency, that's what i want to put in financial regulatory reform. over the next year while everybody fought back and forth over the regular reform bill, there were a lot of offers on the table to get something else. he consistently said no. and a year ago right now, this week, he signed into law a bill that made this consumer agency exist and as strong and independent way.
now, since then, what's happened is there are folks on capitol hill, republicans in the senate and the house, they voted against the bill to begin with -- against the agency to begin with, they've introduced bills to try to cut our funding, introduced bills to try to make us less independent, introduced bills so we have a gummed up structure so we can't get anything done and bills to flat out repeal us. i want to be clear, the reason i cannot run this agency is because of those people. they've made it perfectly clear they will not let the agency go forward if i'm there, fine. i can step away from this. what i care about is this agency. the president has now made his nomination. he's a good man, Richard Cordray is, and i think it's time to take the fight straight to the republicans. we need a director in place, that's the law, and we are not, not, not going to let the minority come in and dictate the terms of this agency, rip its arms and legs off before it's able to help a single family.
About the future of Elizabeth Warren
Maddow:>> when you talk about taking it straight to the republicans, do you want to be part of that fight in the future?
Warren:>> you know, i'm going to be part of that fight one way or another, rachel. let me be clear about this. i have really done three things in my life, i have taught school, because that's what i do, i've done research around what happens to middle class families and tried to understand that, and i have thrown rocks at people that i think are in the wrong. i've done it before, i've continued to do it, and i'm going to do it in the future.
Tell me after listening to what warren said if there is any inkling of resentment. The woman is an amazing passionate consumer advocate that this country has lost to serve as a director of a land mark regulatory agency because of Republicans.
We are the change we have been looking for indeed. In 2008, we made a huge head way to effecting many changes by electing Democrats and unseating many Republicans that gave us the majority in both chamber.
Can you imagine what we could have built had we been more motivated and wanted the change we have been seeking for by working harder to electing more and better Democrats in 2010? We would have had Elizabeth Warren confirmed without much resistance. We would not be talking about the debt ceiling but how to create more jobs. We would not be talking about the Ryan plan but the Obama plan. Most of all, we would not have been second guessing and undermining our President complaining about anything regardless of what he does non-stop.
We have lost opportunity because we got caught sleeping. Forget about Margaret Thatcher being the iron lady. We had an iron lady right in front of us and we let her slip away because of our complacency, sensationalized rumors and the cesspool of manufactured outrage that kept pulling us down instead building a coalition to proactively move us up the ladder.
Change is not something that we take a timeout to get a breather from or take a break from down the stretch because we disagree with something and wait for another person or time to continue the journey. Yes, not everything is to our liking all the time but we do have many more issues that bind us together than separate us which requires us to sometimes scarifies something we value in order to get ahead.
"If we aren’t willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren’t willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all."
~quote from President Obama's book, "Audacity of Hope"
Being an advocate for a Democratic platform is not to be a part time convenience. The if we get "A", we are going to work harder; but if we get "B", we are going to slack meme in our politics is a no values kind of advocacy that will enable the Democratic platform to take a step back. What is your value and what is the price you are willing to pay for it?
If we had wanted Elizabeth Warren to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the best scarifies we would have made would have been giving our time to get out and register new voters, knock at doors and share what we have accomplished, etc., to help elect more and better Democrats.
Otherwise, we will only be watching the iron lady.... and say if only...
However, we have an amazing nominee now, former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who the Republican will continue to try to hijack his nomination. Don't let them do that.
Call your senators and tell them it is time to fight for the fair treatment of Americas middle class families. Tell them it is time to ensure American consumers are treated honestly, fairly and not be cheated. Tell them to swiftly approve the Nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to bring about integrity in the financial system.
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